Anesthesiologists
Administer anesthetics and analgesics for pain management prior to, during, or after surgery.
- Median pay
- $391,490
- Doing it now
- 41,500
- By 2035
- Up 3.6%
- Usually needs
- Doctoral or professional degree
a year
across the country
1,100 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Administer anesthetic or sedation during medical procedures, using local, intravenous, spinal, or caudal methods.
- Monitor patient before, during, and after anesthesia and counteract adverse reactions or complications.
- Provide and maintain life support and airway management and help prepare patients for emergency surgery.
- Record type and amount of anesthesia and patient condition throughout procedure.
- Examine patient, obtain medical history, and use diagnostic tests to determine risk during surgical, obstetrical, and other medical procedures.
- Position patient on operating table to maximize patient comfort and surgical accessibility.
- Decide when patients have recovered or stabilized enough to be sent to another room or ward or to be sent home following outpatient surgery.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- MedicineSee 3 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Analytical and curious
Helping and teaching
Hands-on and practical
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $391,490 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.